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EDITORIAL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St . Atlanta. Ga Entered as second-class matter at Dostoffs e at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1M79 Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail, $5 00 a year. Payable in advance. Parents Have NOT the Right to Deckle on Treat ment for Their Children •» R », They Can Decide as They Please on the Child s Religion, Not on the Care of the Child’s Body. That Is a Matter for the Gen eral Wisdom and Science to Decide. The Hearst newspapers have advocated and do advocate the establishment of a public department of health under the man agement of lhe national government. Tin government and the people of the I nited States, spend ing millions to tell farmers how to care for young pigs, horses, chickens and geese, should spend some money telling mothers and fathers how to care for their children—and, if necessary, compelling proper care of those that need care. < This wise measure has been opposed by many that do not understand it, and by many others that have good reasons for fearing science, and intelligent action. Some of those that hate the idea of a department of health are well-meaning dreamers, who amuse themselves by saying that there s no disease until disease comes. Then they die or send for a doctor. Others make money by exploiting the diseases, terrors and sorrows of humanity and fear the spread of knowledge. Among those that oppose the public health department is one who writes as follows: You speak of the great good that the government does through the departments that give to tile farm ers information regarding the care of their various animals, all of which is perfectly true and .< great work, and then of the lack of in terest displayed by the same gov ernment in caring for the health of the children. But it does not seem to me that the cases are par allel. because 4n the case of the animals, they, being dumb tirptes, must take whatever kind of care Is given to them without any choice in the matter, but when it comes to a human being he, or she, is abso- lit reply to this we beg to say, first, that the public would not for a moment foierate a law telling the people to adopt and submit themselves to treatment by any medical school, allo pathic or otherwise. 1 he government does not compel the farmer to treat his hog or his cow or his sheep if the farmer does not want to. The farmer is allowed to let the animal die. BI T HE IS NOT ALLOWED TO LET HIS ANIMALS EN DANGER THE LIVES OE THE ANIMALS OF HIS NEIGH BORS. HE ISN’T ALLOWED TO LEI' HIS OWN CONCEIT OR FOOLISH NOTIONS ENDANGER THE PROSPERITY OR HEALTH OF OTHERS. similarly, a department of health devoted to the interest of human beings would not compel the adult man or woman to adopt any school or treatment. But that department would do in a national way what the citi ami state departments of health do now. It would not per mit the ci’aekbraiut'd theorist denying the existence of disease, or the careless, indifferent idiot, to endanger the lives of others. The health department would say to the citizen: It it is your pleasure to die of consumption you may do so. It you wish to die of smallpox you may do so; that is vour business. But you shall not spread consumption among others if we can preient it. and you shall not spread the smallpox.'' A department ol health would give advice, it would prevent the spreading ol disease, and no sane person could object. In regard to children, we deny the statement of our corre spondent that th' parent has the right to treat the children medicalh as he seis lit. and that the choice of medical treat ment is lhe same as the choice of religious doctrine. A man has the right to teach his children what religion he pleases that right is guaranteed to him by the constitution. Later on the child can change if it wishes. Meanwhile the fact that the child is a Mohammedan, an agnostic, an atheist, a Chris tian Scientist, a ( atholie, a Protestant, a Zoroastrian. a Confu cian. a Buddhist or what not makes no difference to the general welfare. Religions, unlike diseases, are not catching And if a parent ehoosi s to ineuh-at'- religious doctrines, truthful or false, that doesn i do any harm to the community. With disease ami with the practice of medicine it is dis . ferent. I h'- child s imtiilcd io (he protection which is offered to it by the progress of science (>ur correspiur ■nt knows that in China, for instance, the ignorant natives retuse to ln> treated when they have the plague. 1 hex d.e in heaps, ami their children die because thev won't let them be treated. lines oui correspondent think it wise to permit human be ings and children to d ■ in this wav? Our correspondent is aware of the fact that the Indians, when i iiex see a child dying, send tor Hie medicine man. This medicine man weaves his bodx back and forth in front of the ehild. or holds up some ridiculous charm, and sits there plaeidlv while the child dies or gets well. Does our correspondent think that tin’ government would be wise to allow children to die in this fashion if they had diph theria. smai'p'ix or other diseases that everybody knows require sane, scientific treatment? Grown people max die if they choose; thex max refuse to eat *or wear ehithing if they want to But they can not refuse to rive thmr children the treatment which the most advanced science prescribes. Manx parents have contested in the courts the theory that ;| l allow a child to die without care, and such parents ■ ’■ ’ " cii' d to their cost that medicine and religion are two dif ferent things. rotioo.i] Imr an of health would be chiefly advisory, "an k - m‘ Hons spreading information, preventing the spread V " -"ions diseases. And once established, not even the most " '>d di-amer or tiw most selfish exploiter of disease ' 11,11 nt- advocate discontinuing it. lutely entitled to the right to choose for himself, or herself, what meth od of treatment he, or she, desires, or in the case of children, the pa rents have the right to make this choice, as we certainly are entitled tp the Inalienable right when it comes to the selection of our medi cal school as we are in selecting our religion. And should this de partment of health be established it would without doubt be run abso lutely by physicians of the allopath ic school, and they would have, of course, the medical laws so framed as to make It impossible for you to employ a method of treatment that did not correspond to their views. The Atlanta Georgian JOY AND GLOOM Remember Those Golden Words of Pop Rockefeller-—“ Eat Lightly” Copyright, 1912. International News Service. > —f EVE.M THINd LET SEE.’ SR/MC MEA ~ I WELL ToE MATS j I* z—> PIQS KNUCKLE AND A DISHOF) gooD To DAY 7 50 UK KRAUT a DILL PICKLE/, — s /'A GGGG ( Grp, b some more) \C < r * MM < X ff WONT HURT / W , fWiIW ~i(• V - z- -s= /KRAUT ) G < > /< mgr . rflßJJtir lOa /> |E»!l ,j— ——Aft IHz I r\ It ft ’’ MMB» I b \ wfcw \ s 1 i Ore CREAM ) f "J © x W WL WJWdK mV/ MbW Wi i W Ufa t llLag . EL LA W HEE LE R WILC O X Andress Floyd’s Self-Mastery Colony A CERTAIN woman who won a few precious Jewels prizes one above the others because it has a special meaning. It is an old Spanish coat of arms, and represents self-conquest. A chanticleer, in emerald, enamel and mother of pearl is gripping a serpent >n his claws, and lifting ills ruby colored head ready to crow with exultation. Self-conquest is so much greatei than conquest of circumstances, power, place, glory or fame. Some of the worst people of earth have conquered all these things, t’nlx really GREAT souls have achieved Self-Conquest, Out in New Jersey there is a man named Andress Floyd. He lias achieved Self-Mastery to the extent that lie cares noxx for nothing on earth save to be helpful to other men ami to aid them to this same achievement. Mr Floyd and ids wife have named their place the Self-Mastery Colony, but some people call it "Hobo Farm." Mr Floyd lias known success, money success, position and popu larity with the gay world. Then he knew failure, and that put him in touch with every other failure on earth. Only Necessary That He Knows. Now. the onlx’ letter of introduc tion xxhich is needed to his Self- Mastery Colony and work and friendship is the knowledge that a man is a failure, homeless and friendless Then he is admitted and given the hand of friendship and some task is set for him to do. His idea Is that men who have TU E.S D AY. J PLY 16. 1912. By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX (Copyright. 1912, by American-Journal-Examlner.) lost the work habit must be at tracted back, not driven, and, un like the business man who asks for all sorts of references when an ap plicant comes for work. Mr. Floyd asks nothing and gives much. Here is a littl& classification which lias been given by the founder of this colony of the type of men who come to him. How He Classifies The Types of Men. "Young men who are drifting and homeless come to us from the charity associations, missions, cler gymen. V. M. C. A and interested friends, and may be classified as follows: "First The man unable to find immediate employment. "Second—The man in middle life who has lost his business. “Third—The intemperate man trying to control himself. "Fourth The country boy stranded in the city. "Fifth The rich man's sun. wax - ward, estranged from h s- family “Sixth -The man discouraged through domestic troubles. "Seventh—Men run down physi cally and mentally, needing out door xvork. "Who are the guests' at the Self- Mastery Colony" Men of educa tion and refinement, who have fail ed in business and can not get a job. men driven to the gutter by liqqor or cocaine or morphine, m< n rendered desperate and despond ent by domestic infelicity; men from Whose characters have drib bled the last grains of sand, the last atom of pluck." These men are given many tasks to do and after they once learn the road back to labor through t r - pleasant path, thex either stay as helpers and co-xvorkfrs, ot go forth tn take their place among the world s toilers again Such a work as Mr. Floyd is do ing needs co-operation. He has issued a call to all phil anthropic people who long to be of assistance to humanity. Here it is: “Your heart goes out in sympa thy to the broken man. who, though the fault is his own. has become a social outcast. It is with the keen est regret that you turn him from your door, knowing that he is like ly to fall into deeper and deeper desecration. until even health, lib erty and self-respect are lost to him. At best, all that you can give him i« temporary assistance-—food and money—when his real need is a higher and better viewpoint of lifj>. "For years T have been convinced that to give this so-called derelict foor and shelter was not enough for under this man's forbidding ex terior 1 find t here nxx ells some one's sun, brother or father, who has lost th 1 r which he can least afford to lose - his ideals. Opens His Door When All Others are Locked. “Firmly held by this conviction. I started to open my doors day and night to this friendless man, who in his hour of discouragement mut ters to himself that all men have turm d from him. that all doors are locked against him; that there can he no God: that the world's ideals are dead. "Then it is that I would have him know of the Self-Mastery Colony, xvhere the aim is toward the ideal— the ideal of human service—where no doors are locked against him. where no man turns from him. and that ft. r all there really Is a GOD whose CHRIST calls out to the go, i teat livs within his own err ing heart—calls to him to reclaim hi f " THE HOME PAPER Winifred Black Writes —OF— The Drudge Husband <4 A T h us b an <i ts a good map. jY/l He has never said an un kind word’to me since I’ve been his wife. He is hard working, devoted, honest, but he is a drudge —just a plain every-day drudge, and he never will be anything else. “.My school girl companions who married when I did have gone on and on with their husbands. One of them has an automobile, one has a beautiful home of her own and one has just gone to Europe on a pleasure trip and here I am tied down to the drudge in the same house, we took when we were mar ried. “My girls go to a public school and learn public school ways. I don’t mind for myself, I am not mercenary, but I do hate to see my poor daughters grow up in this miserable rut. "I simply can’t stand it. I have a chance now to go into business for myself. It will take me away from home and I am going to put my girls in school and go, wouldn't you?” Nice confidential letter, isn't it? And the worst of it is that it is miserably, undeniably true, every single word of It, and then some more. I know a dozen just such cases. They differ in particulars—one man has a pretty home, one draws a salary, one gets wages, one man has girls to support, one has boys, and one has only his wife, who de spises him for being what she loves to call a “drudge.” It is sad, isn’t it? And yet, somehow, I always won der how much better the woman who prides herself on her “ambi tion” is than the drudge who irri tates her so. Easy To Be Ambitious For Some One Else. It is very easy to be ambitious for some one else. I wonder how much headway that same woman would make with the work the “drudge” does so faithfully and well. What does your husband have to make him “ambitious,’’ dear wom an? How do you help him, pray tell? By nagging him and making fun of him? That’s a good way, isn't it? Why don’t you try an other one for a change? I've seen a very commonplace man made over into a comparative success, just by the faith his wife had in him. Have you tried believing in the drudge to see what that would do? You can’t nag a man at home and expect him to bear himself like a man away from home. It takes courage and spirit and will power to fight away up in the world, and if you take all those things out of a man before he leaves the house, what weapons has he to make the fight? "Ambitious!” How do you know whether he’s ambitious or not? ,z What do you call ambition, any way? The wish to get rich? Fine noble work that is. isn't it? Selling the body and the soul and the heart and the mind to leave a fine monument and a rich wid ow? It’s all well enough to live to get rich, but why make yourself believe that you have “high ideals” just because you want an automo bile and want the drudge to get it, some way, any way, only get it? Don’t be too sure that you are so much cleverer and so much finer In every way than the drudge. He may have his own ideas on the sub ject even though he does not think it necessary to nug you about them. Stick to Your Bargain; Make the Best of It. What shall you do? Why, what in the name of common sense is there for you to do but to stick to your bargain and make the best «f it? It’s good morals, good sense The Wonder-Maker {' , DIE. if thou rt cold to Summer's charms. Her clouds of green, her starry flowers, And let this bird, the wandering bird, Make his fine wonder yours; He, hiding in the leaves so green, M hen sampling this fair work? of ours, < ries ( uekoo, clear: and, like Lot's wife, I look, though it should end my life. \\ hen I can hear that charmed one's voice, I taste of immortality : My joy's so groat that on my Doth lie eternity. As light as any little flower— So strong a wonder works in me; “('uckoo! - ' he cries, and fills my soul V* ith all that s rich and beautiful. By WINIFRED BLACK. and good religion, nothing else will do at all. Your children! What do you ex pect to make of your children if you run away from their father because he doesn’t “get on?” I’d rather give my children their start, in life in a happy home, a home where there's love and trust, and faith, and courage, and pa tience, and nobility of heart, than to send them to the finest school on earth and pay for that schooling in the bitter coin of estrangement from all that really counts. You can get “schooling” in th* books—lots of it—and books come cheap in this day. You can’t learn patience, and love and truth, and forbearance in any book in the world but the good oid book of life, and home is the very best place to study that. Here’s today—fresh. hopeful, wide-awake today, splendid today, glorious today—full of promise, full of possibilities; let's make those promises come true, every one of them. Forget all this “higher ideal" twaddle; stop thinking of the au tomobile we can't get and go to work—here —in the place where we belong, tn our own home, with our own children and the man who loves them. Get the poor drudge the best breakfast you can buy with the money you have to spend; serve it as prettily as possible, with a smile, too, that counts —oh, how much does it count! Put your heart in the coffee. Put your brain into those biscuits, send your little girls off to school with the “common” children with an “uncommon" song in their happy hearts. It takes so little to do that —a • new joke, a little story, a word of extra praise. When they come home be waiting for them. You. yourself—not the woman with the 'corners of her mouth drawn down, the one they’ve seen at the door so often; not the woman who is mad because she hasn't any automobile, not the woman who is sick with envy because she can’t go to Eu rope, but YOU, the mother they love and understand, the mother they idolize. Give Him a Good Dinner And With a Smile, Too. At night surprise the drudge with a good dinner, a really good din ner. Give him a smile with it, and the same look you had when you thought he was the One Great man of the earth. Why, even the office boy will notice a different set to the shoulders of the “drudge’’ when he gets to work tomorrow, the set of the shoulders of a man who is loved and looked up to and believed in. Maybe he will cease to be a drudge. Give him a chance; give him a chance. Forget your dreams and your ambitions, forget everything but the drudge and the children. The drudge who stood by you in your hour of agony, the drudge who would ent off his hand at the wrist to make you and the children hap py. Come, come, my dear. life Is with you, good, wholesome, sensible, lus ty, kindly, generous, simple life — life with its thirsts and the drink to slake them, life with its fatigue and the good rest to relieve it. I,if" with its tears and its laughter—for you can't spare either of these twin sisters and really live. Dive evert’ minute of it, with your heart and your brain and your soul, and win the right to the glory of it every minute you breathe. And peace go with you. you and the good, kind drudge, who may not be such a drudge after all if >on give him a chance, and the chil dren who will rise up and call >ou blessed, as they would never learn to do in any school except tit'' school of a happy and an hone.-t home.